Born in London, July 12, 1885
Died in Pozières, Aug 5, 1916
- Like Vaughan Williams, Butterworth found much of his artistic identity in English folk music, and in the poetry of A.E. Houseman.
- He set to music six poems from Housman’s poem cycle A Shropshire Lad, and also wrote an orchestral rhapsody based upon it.
- Butterworth was a member of the English Folk Song Society, which collected and conserved English folk music. He was also part of the English Folk Dance Society, and was an accomplished Morris dancer.
- Butterworth served in WWI, fought at the Somme, and died in 1916. This is why we have very little of his music.1
Sources
- Stephen Banfield, “Butterworth, George,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed August 14, 2019, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000004467.